Increasing HCAHPS Scores in Key Domains

CHALLENGE

United Regional understood that enhancing the patient experience would not only improve HCAHPS scores and hospital standing, but also patient outcomes. URH pinpointed key drivers of the patient experience – communication about medications, hospital environment and responsiveness of hospital staff – to target for improvement. Upgrading these areas required a comprehensive solution that would allow nurses to quickly identify patient concerns and efficiently route these concerns to the appropriate departments for prompt issue resolution.

SOLUTION

To address these key areas of the patient experience, United Regional deployed CipherRounds. The digital rounding application includes a nurse rounding script with questions specifically designed to gather data on patients’ understanding of medications instructions, the condition of the care environment, and level of responsiveness of hospital staff. The data collected following the technology’s deployment was used to drive process improvement.

RESULTS

Within three months of implementing CipherRounds, United Regional experienced significant HCAHPS improvements in the areas of focus, with increases of 10.9% in communication about medication, 10.1% in hospital environment and 14.8% in responsiveness of staff. Further, the hospital saw a 4.6% average increase across all HCAHPS domains.

HCAHPS Analysis Pre and Post CipherRounds

CLIENT: United Regional Health Care PROFILE 269-bed suburban hospital, PRODUCT: Patient Rounds, PRODUCT: Leadership Rounding, BASELINE: Jan-Sept 2014, COMPARATIVE: Oct-Dec 2014